Kin Recognition in a Brooding Salamander

Egg guarding, or ‘brooding’, by the mountain dusky salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus) is an example of maternal behaviour that can be experimentally manipulated and described quantitatively. It has been demonstrated that females of this species can specifically recognize, and will preferentially brood, their own eggs over those of a conspecific. We investigated whether this behaviour would extend to the selection of eggs of a more genetically similar animal in preference to those of a less similar animal, as might be predicted by inclusive fitness theory. We report here a highly significant correlation between time spent brooding and genetic similarity determined by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. This is the first demonstration of a quantitative relation between genetic relatedness and maternal care in amphibians. Our findings have implications for the nature of maternal kin recognition in amphibians and its effect on kin selective behaviour in this class.